“Poor White” by Sherwood Anderson

If you like historical fiction, I recommend Poor White by Sherwood Anderson (whom you may know from Winesburg, Ohio). Published originally in 1920, it tells the story of small town Midwestern folk in the time when farming was slowly becoming mechanized and the rural poor were becoming factory workers to produce those corn huskers and tractors. The novel is prescient about the cycles of increasing displacement as even those factory jobs were lost to “advanced” technology. And it is prescient about the plight of “poor whites” in the Midwest today who voted to be saved in the last election. It is also good writing.

Reviewed by Lucy Hitchcock, UUJEC Board Member

“The Third Reconstruction” by Rev. William Barber, with Johnathan Wilson-Hartgrove

In this marvelous little book Reverend Barber traces his transformation as inheritor of the long arc of history bending toward justice, as celebrated by Martin Luther King Jr. But his context is not just the Civil Rights Movement but the history of fusion politics going back to the Civil War. By fusion politics he means “black and white together”, yet also almost every other good cause you can think of, knowing that minorities need a wide variety of allies to challenge brutal political repression.

Like MLK, Barber understands that the issue is one of both “race and class” – that white supremacy has been used to divide the white working class from its natural allies – the working classes of all ethnic and racial groups. He cites the success of the fusion politics of the 1890s until it was crushed by the Jim Crow politics of the white power structure. Today the Koch Brothers are conspiring with local multimillionaires like Art Pope to restore white power by passing laws for voter suppression, defunding public education, lavish tax benefits for the rich, etc.

Barber concludes by listing fourteen steps for organizers, such as “Intentionally diversify the movement with the goal of winning unlikely allies”. [Dick Burkhart, Chair GA Committee]

"Rigged" by Dean Baker

Review by Terry Lowman, UUJEC Co-Chair

If you had the impression that the system is stacked against you, let Dean Baker count the ways for you. First there's the loss of power of the working man--unions have been diminished and unions are the only tool that the working man has. But the owning class goes anywhere in the world to find cheap labor.

And then there are all the ways that law protects the interests of the wealthy. Patent laws help pharmaceutical companies charge around 10 times more for drugs than we'd pay without them. And yes, there are fair ways to compensate these companies for the research and development, but the patents not only run up expenses for the consumer--they limit potential cures as drug companies tend to copy other company's successful drugs rather than create something new (think statins: atorvastatin (Lipitor), fluvastatin (Lescol, Lescol XL), lovastatin (Mevacor, Altoprev), pravastatin (Pravachol), rosuvastatin (Crestor), simvastatin (Zocor), and pitavastatin (Livalo) How does the consumer benefit? Another type of drug for reducing heart disease would be better.

Copyrights have been extended again and again. Happy Birthday just went off copyright after 75 years! This does not encourage creativity if you can retire after writing one song or one book.

To reduce competition, lawyers have bar exams--and states with an abundance of lawyers have harder to pass bar exams, states with a shortage have easier bar exams. Allegedly, there's no measurable difference in quality of lawyers. With doctors, there are only so many residency spots. If you don't get picked up for a residency, you can't practice medicine in the country. Very few residency spots are allocated to doctors educated in other countries, so we will never have an over abundance of medical doctors.

Dean Baker really sums up why we need to renegotiate our laws so that working people have the power to earn a living wage. The money is there, so it's a matter of distribution. It's well written and easy to read. I really recommend it.

Dean Baker is a progressive economist, and a smart one too, showing many a clever way to unrig our top heavy economy system. Regrettably, thinking like an economist is both his strength and his weakness. It’s great that he can tell us exactly how to restructure the way we do drug R & D, to save many billions and get better results. But he fails to tell us that we’ll likely need Bernie’s “political revolution” to do it.

Nor does Baker realize that in a world facing limits-to-growth, a capitalist economy may become impossible to sustain. That is, capitalism is designed to concentrate wealth and power, unless severely constrained. When the growth imperative falters, as it must, the capitalists are quick to blame the constraints, hence the escalating inequality since Reagan and Thatcher. Finally, the dynamic of the “rich get richer, while the poor get poorer” itself reaches a breaking point, as it must, hence Trump.

Though missing this big picture, Baker has some wonderful ideas for slashing the horrendous waste that plagues US capitalism. For example, he’d take most medical R & D into the public domain, more like the US military, where the big companies work under contract. Except, full public disclosure would be required instead of patents, resulting in drug prices that would fall by 99% for today’s most expensive drugs. Then he’d take on the monopoly power that produces extravagant doctors’ salaries, bypassing their political power by promoting medical tourism, even to India. [While bicycling in India in 2004 a kidney stone put me in a hospital in Hyderabad, so I experienced first hand the high quality and extremely low cost of medical care in India.]

This book includes all the numbers you need too, such as low and high estimates of cost savings. Besides the medical establishment, he takes on other professions, plus Wall Street, corporate governance, taxes, trade, even textbooks, all with an eye inequality and waste. Yet he doesn’t examine the bloated Pentagon budget or fossil fuel subsidies. And the simplistic economic models that start off chapter 1 leave me longing for a little more real world depth and complexity.

“The Origin of Wealth” by Eric Beinhocker

I’ve long wondered about the rotten state of academic economics. In this classic work Eric Beinhocker not only shows the origins of this pseudo science (concepts from 19th century equilibrium physics misapplied to economics) but how to make it into a real science (using the modern mathematics of nonlinearity, chaos, and algorithms). Beinhocker draws on interdisciplinary work at the Santa Fe Institute to give us an engaging introduction to this new field of “complexity economics”. Fortunately, he writes like a journalist, so you don’t need to know the underlying math.

Early on he illustrates evolutionary algorithms, ones that mimic actual biological evolution, and how they are applied to groups of human-like agents, subject to simple rules for “economic” interaction at each time step. The results quickly evolve behavior that has long eluded the simplistic equations of mainstream economists. In addition, despite his bias toward free market capitalism, Beinhocker produces several cogent criticisms of modern business, such as the dilemma of the ruthless efficiency of hierarchical organizations versus the autonomy needed for innovation. Another example is the damage to the common good that emerges from the “prisoners’ dilemma” effect of unfettered markets and extreme individualism. Check out http://evonomics.com/ for updates. [Dick Burkhart, Escalating Inequality Team Chair]

"The Second Machine Age" By Erik Brynjlofsson and Andrew McAfee

This book hypes the developing robotics revolution in technology, yet balances this extravaganza with warnings on growing inequality and job losses. It reminds me of Alvin Toffler’s blockbluster books of decades past, forecasting the stresses of technological and societal change, but this time from the narrower point of view of an economist. The authors see our “winner take all” society as a consequence primarily of technology, ignoring power relationships. Also, “growth” is the ultimate solution to escalating inequality, ignoring limits-to-growth.

They welcome ideas to reduce inequality like a guaranteed minimum income, but are hesitant about full employment policies and about shifting heavy payroll taxes to more progressive income, capital gains, and wealth taxes. They boost education and immigration as great inequality solvers but seem unfamiliar with conflicting research. Piketty is not cited, even though he shows that increasing inequality is inevitable when the rate of return exceeds the rate of growth.

Brynjlofsson and McAfee say, correctly, that artificial intelligence has come of age due to exponential growth in computer power (Moore’s Law). Yet they do not consider the lessons that might be learned from how the extreme inequality of the late 19th century industrial revolution was finally resolved after decades of turmoil, upheaval that now appears to be commencing in earnest for the “second machine age” after the election of Trump. [Dick Burkhart, Escalating Inequality Committee Chair]

"The Moral Economy: Why Good Incentives Are No Substitute for Good Citizens" by Samuel Bowles

Progressive economist Samuel Bowles mounts a well-researched and convincing challenge to the “economic man” of traditional theory - the calculating, self-interested individual. He cites many studies which demonstrate that financial incentives often backfire due to seemingly irrational human behavior, characterized by penalizing bad behavior and rewarding the good, or responding to issues of trust, shame, honor, citizenship, etc. For example, when a group of preschools placed a small fine on parents who dropped off their kids late, the parents simply absorbed the cost of lateness and the lateness problem got much worse.

Even ancient civilizations, like the Greeks, knew that far more could be accomplished by appealing to the goodness in people, not just by punishing the miscreants and free loaders. Today’s economists need to develop guidance for “Aristotle’s Legislator”, based on how people actually behave, not by assuming the worst (Hume’s “constitution for knaves”). For example, a mayor of Bogota, Columbia, reduced horrendous traffic deaths by 2/3 by developing a system that enlisted the public to honor good drivers while shaming the bad, with fines only a minor component. Thus people are more likely to support a worthy cause if the appeal is to honor and the public benefit, not to self-interest.

This is a semi-popular book, well written, with experimental results from diverse populations, but at times a little heavy on jargon and technical aspects. [Dick Burkhart, Escalating Inequality Chair]

"This is an Uprising" by Mark and Paul Engler

We want justice, when do we want it? NOW! But that's not how justice works; it a long tedious slog. The Occupy Movement was criticized for doing nothing, but that's not true. The 1% and the 99%, the very language of economic justice, came out of the Occupy Movement and without language, you have no movement. This book charts the history of movements and proves that movements take time and careful planning (despite the appearance of spontaneous combustion). This book explains how to empower justice movements. Visit the official website here. [Terry Lowman, UUJEC Co-Chair]

"Listen Liberal" by Thomas Frank

The Ruin of the Democratic Party by Meritocracy and Technocracy

Thomas Frank really tears into the Clintons and Obama for abandoning the US working class in their quest for a utopia of meritocracy and technocracy for the professional class. Instead we have a nightmare of inequality and dysfunction. This in spite of, or perhaps because of, their personal charm, educated brilliance, and rhetoric of virtue. These liberal elites stabbed their Democratic base in the back while handing out extraordinary favors to the elites of Wall Street and the ‘New Economy’.

The Trump victory was understandable to Thomas Frank. Like Bernie Sanders, he has long called for a return of the Democratic Party to its New Deal roots and says, “Would Bernie have won? Hell, Yes”. Yet, unlike Bernie, who called for a “political revolution”, Frank calls for moral outrage –that liberal leaders put on great displays of moral virtue (toward women and minorities) even as their loyalties now lie with the top 10%, not the bottom 50%.

The jolt of activism impelled by the Trump disaster gives me hope, yet, living in liberal Seattle, I see that Frank’s moral revolution has a long way to go. And with an increasingly corrupt and entrenched oligarchy, that means a rough road ahead. [Dr. Dick Burkhart, UUJEC Board Member]

"The Bubble and Beyond" by Michael Hudson

“The Bubble and Beyond” by the heterodox economist Michael Hudson exposes the destructive financialization of our economy – how Wall Street “rigged the system”. This book traces the historical forces behind the Financial Crash of 2008 and how deregulated money uses debt and compound interest to impose an onerous tax on the 99%, evading federal taxes in the process.

This tax (= mortgage interest on skyrocketing real estate), acts like the land rents that forced the peasants to slave for the aristocrats of old Europe. Yet today housing in Germany is half the US cost. To fix the US bubble, impose high taxes on unearned income (= capital gains) and remove the tax deductibility of interest and depreciation of buildings. Even US industry is being attacked by corporate raiders touting “shareholder value” and hamstrung by excessive debt.

Hudson’s style can be repetitious, with dense words like monetarization and debt deflation, but his pithy quotes are worth it. Such as, “free markets for predatory lending and unearned income”. Or, “to the extent that economics uses mathematics, the spirit is closer to numerology than to the natural sciences”. Or, “throughout history societies that have polarized between creditors and debtors have not survived well”. [Dr. Dick Burkhart, UUJEC GA Committee Chair]

"Dark Age Ahead" by Jane Jacobs

Amazingly, this book was written well before the financial crash of 2008 and the 2016 US presidential election. Yet even in 2005 Jane Jacobs’ book became a bestseller, resonating with the many who suffered from, or who could see, the damage and corruption being wrought by an expanding culture of greed. She focuses on 5 points: (1) family, (2) higher education, (3) science and technology, (4) taxes and regulations, (5) self-policing.

Her chapter on family is really a lament for increasing domination by the car and the ensuing loss of public transit and social life, and the increasing cost of housing. On higher education, it is all about real education versus credentialing. On science, she describes three cases of scientific stupidity, deriving from unquestioned dogmas, taking examples from traffic engineering, public health, and economic development. On taxes, it is about Toronto’s dysfunctional property tax system and the rapid deterioration of public services due to a corrupt, neo-conservative government. On self-policing it is about failures in business and the professions, from Enron to the Catholic Church.

Then Jacobs looks for ways out of this “vicious spiral” of decay, such as revival of street life and affordable housing after the housing bubble; “performance zoning”; and redundancy in mentoring people and promoting economic diversity. Her final warning: Empires have not recognized that “the true power of a successful culture resides in its example”. [Dick Burkhart, UUJEC GA Committee Chair]

"Runaway Inequality" by Les Leopold

Most persons who visit this web page have read one or more books on income inequality. Runaway Inequality, by reporter and educator Les Leopold demonstrates the ideas that most such books do. (e.g., that income inequality harms most Americans).

It’s remarkable for making two additional points.

That domination of our economy by the financial sector consists “strip mining” that destroys important resources.

An interesting detail of this argument is that this financialization constitutes a huge tax (36.8% of private profit in 2012) on everything that happens in our society.

That progressives have no little or chance of winning on any issue if we don’t unify to break the power of the very rich.

This unity requires establishment of a national education program. Mr. Leopold is working with the Work Environment Council on that program right now.

[Kit Marlowe, UUJEC Co-Secretary]

“Global Inequality” by Branko Milanovic

“Global Inequality – A New Approach for the Age of Globalization” by Branko Milanovic demonstrates that escalating economic inequality within nations is occurring globally, not just in the US. Yet, at the same time, the numbers show an overall trend toward convergence of incomes across nations. But are nations really getting more equal when the numbers depend so much on China, while Africa has been left behind?

Even within, nations may be at different historical stages, which he calls waves of inequality. For example, inequality increased in the United States until the Great Depression and World War II set the stage for a growing middle class and more egalitarian society, with another wave of escalating inequality beginning around 1980. In contrast China is still in its first wave of capitalistic inequality.

Milanovic correctly identifies the strong plutocratic forces driving escalating inequality in the US yet missed this year’s political revolt by Bernie and Trump supporters. And, like most economists, he fails to understand limits-to-growth – that the world cannot just grow itself into equality when so many of its resources (fossil fuels in particular) and ecosystems are maxing out, despite all the wonders of technology. How to tackle global inequality remains a huge challenge, but at least some economists are taking a new look. [Dick Burkhart, UUJEC GA Committee Chair]

"Confessions of An Eco-Sinner" by Fred Pearce

Confessions of An Eco-Sinner by British Journalist Fred Pearce. Wanting to understand over-consumption habits and its effects on people and the planet, Pearce takes us on a journey to find the sources of his stuff. Across the world, he gains unimaginable access to factories, mines, farms and the people who work within them. Pearce offers a very thorough inventory of the good, the bad and the ugly truths about consumerism. For example: over a million fair trade Kenyan bean farmers are supported by British consumers, the Uzbekistani cotton industry employs 40% of the workforce; and hundreds of thousands of children, 6.5 million tons of wastepaper is sent annually from the U.S. and Britain to China only to be turned into packaging and shipped back. Pearce offers simple solutions to big global problems, and ways to rethink our role in the economy. It’s a very intriguing inventory of products and people told from the perspective of a British Humanist journalist. [Rachel Bennett Steury, UUJEC Globalization and Trade Task Force member]

What We're Reading

Reviews are listed alphabetically by author's last name.

"Phishing for Phools:The Economics of Manipulation & Deception" By George Akerlof and Robert Shiller Reviewed here by Dr. Dick Burkhart UUJEC Board Member

"The Money Formula: Dodgy Finance, Pseudo Science, and How Mathematicians Took Over the Market" By Paul Wilmott and David Orrell Reviewed by Dr. Dick Burkhart UUJEC Board Member, published in the SIAM News

UUJEC Book Reviews

"Capital in the Twenty-First Century" by Thomas Piketty

Capital in the Twenty-First Century by French economist Thomas Piketty. At the UUJEC "Escalating Inequality or Justice for All" Conference in Evanston, IL Michael Teasdale, offered an overview of the key ideas in Piketty’s book. [Michael Teasdale, UUJEC Co-Chair]

"Saving Capitalism" by Robert Reich

“Defying Corporations, Defining Democracy: A Book of History & Strategies” by Dean Ritz

Defying Corporations, Defining Democracy by Dean Ritz. This little book, a collection of 70 essays, sermons, speeches, and yes, even rants, - was invigorating on first read and has been a valuable reference over the years. It challenges the usual approaches of regulations, demonstrations, and puts the essence of illegitimate corporate power on display for all to see. Use the “Look Inside” feature on Amazon to sample a few of the gems within. You will be hooked. [Rich Florentino, UUJEC Board Member]

"Strangers in Their Own Land Anger and Mourning on the American Right" by Arlie Russell Hochschild

Reviewer: [Terry Lowman UUJEC Co-Chair]

Arlie made connections to go to Louisiana and get to know Tea Partiers as people. Liberals and Northerners dismiss Southerners as dumb and voting against their own interests, but that's only because we Northern Liberals have a different "deep story". The deep story is that after the Civil War and reconstruction and then after the 1960's Civil Rights movement, it feels like the Federal government is out to keep Southerners down.

The Tea Partiers have been in a long line waiting for the American Dream, except us liberals keep waving women, people of color, immigrants and the LGBT community in front of them.

Many of their parents and grandparents came from nothing...when oil came to Louisiana and people started making a living. But then the government brought in immigrants, passed environmental laws and it felt like our government and liberals were against white men making a good living despite loyalty, working hard, and supporting our military

Their own state government has also sold them down the river--approving over 99% of drilling applications and given permits that have polluted their land and water. They gave permits that destroyed a salt dome and consequently hundreds of acres of land and homes were sucked into the bijou. If you can't trust the government you can see, why should you trust the Federal government when they give lots of money to no good, lazy people. Louisiana economically performs next to the bottom, so a lot of people get food stamps and other welfare.

If we're going to help the lazy people, we need to be sure to help those that are working and deserve credit for their effort.

This is a great book with an interesting set of characters. Arlie writes like a novelist--you feel like you know these people and it's so visual, it could be a movie.

In Strangers, Hochschild spends over five years embedded with Louisiana Tea Party activists, including families that have suffered from environmental disasters at the hands of chemical and petroleum companies. As she builds relationships with her subjects, Hochschild goes to meetings, shares meals, goes on local driving tours, attends church, samples food at Cajun cook-offs, and goes to a Trump rally. Read the complete book review by Chuck Collins on Common Dreams.

"Considering Hate" by Kay Whitlock and Michael Bronski

This was published by our Beacon Press. To understand injustice, a good place to start is by studying hate. This was an amazing and thoughtful look into our origins of hate. Hate often begins with comparing humans to vermin and/or human fluids, pus, etc. To create justice, we need to understand how to remove these vile labels from humans. [Terry Lowman, UUJEC Co-Chair]

The Spirit Level demonstrates that, quite aside from absolute levels of poverty, relative inequality has pernicious effects on societies: eroding trust, increasing anxiety and illness, and encouraging excessive consumption. The common factor that links the healthiest and happiest societies – whether each society as a whole is rich or poor -- is the degree of equality among its members. Further, more unequal societies are bad for all their members – the rich and middle-class as well as the poor. This book examines the effect of greater inequality within a society on 11 different health and social problems: physical health, mental health, drug abuse, educational achievement, trust in community life, obesity, social mobility, imprisonment, violence, child welfare, teen-age pregnancies. Outcomes are clearly worse in more unequal societies. [Bob Beekman, UUJEC member and Economic Inequality editor for NWuuJN]

"Under the Influence" by Tim Wise

Tim Wise gets deep into the structural base of racial wealth disparities starting with the 1676 Bacon rebellion which led rulers to exploit race as a way to control the poor, black and white. Africans were monitored by slave patrols of poor whites, giving poor whites a leg up on blacks and keeping them busy so they don’t notice who is exploiting them. This is a legacy that continues with modern policing

Segregated neighborhoods barely supporting substandard education leads to fewer higher education choices. Even with an education and a clean criminal record, less educated, ex-felon whites still get better jobs. If African Americans do get a good job, they are exploited by racist traditions from housing segregation to credit, which is substantially more expensive. At every turn—private and public policies have given African Americans a raw deal. Wise weaves a comprehensive, fascinating and compelling story. [Terry Lowman, UUJEC Co-Chair]

“Democracy At Work: A Cure for Capitalism” by Richard Wolff

If you believe that economic justice is an impossibility under capitalism, read Richard Wolff, Democracy At Work: A Cure for Capitalism for a path toward positive systemic change. He analyzes the popularly misconstrued labeling of countries, such as Russia, China and Cuba, as “communist” or “socialist” when, in truth, they are state capitalism. That is, the power to decide where surplus profits from labor go is located in the state instead of in corporations, and not in the workers responsible for the production and surplus. This is a crucial and fog-lifting insight. It also serves as warning that government “New Deals” like raising the minimum wage and providing social security payments, while certainly helpful, are not the same as where decision-making is located. Thus, his “cure for capitalism” is to put the power for decision-making into the hands of the workers.

Of course, this is a major upheaval from what is done now, but there are examples of it working in individual workplaces, like cooperatives, as well as the large and long-term experiment of Mondragon. It gives those of us longing for a fair path forward a blueprint to strive for and companions with whom to collaborate. [Rev. Dr. Lucy Hitchcock, Membership Committee Chair]

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